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Vincent Harding, a speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., addresses the All Souls Church congregation to commemorate Dr. King’s birthday in Washington on January 19, 2009. (photo:Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

For an upcoming show Krista interviewed a theologian she has long admired, Vincent Harding. Active in the civil rights movement, he served as an advisor to many of the members of SNCC (The Student Non-violent Coordination Committee) and counted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. among his friends and colleagues.

His spirituality and social justice work is also rooted in the Mennonite tradition, which brought him to Atlanta in 1960. Harding moved to Georgia to represent the Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section as part of a Christian reconciliation between racial groups in the southern United States.

His experience during the civil rights movement informs Dr. Harding’s quest to create “the beloved community,” as Dr. King put it, and offers fresh perspective on our Civil Conversations Project, preferring to aim for “democratic” conversation where participants hear each other’s best arguments and contributions with the intention to make a more perfect union.

We live-tweeted highlights of this 90-minute conversation, which we’re aggregating and reposting for those who weren’t able to follow along. Follow us next time at @BeingTweets.

Getting ready for Krista Tippett’s interview with African American historian and theologian Vincent Harding, who worked closely with MLK.10:04 AM Jan 25th

11. Do we exist to compete with China? I like to think we are building a community much like the community of cells within our body. Our cells developed nerves to communicate. People developed telephone lines. Our cells developed kidneys to clear toxins from the body, people developed water treatment plants. Our cells developed brains to prioritize needs, people developed Congress to prioritize where our tax money should be sent. Our lymphocytes fight to the death enemy bacteria, our police and soldiers fight to the death people who would harm us. Maybe we all one day "love thy neighbor as thyself" as well as our cells in a healthy body cells "love thy neighbor as thyself."